Showing posts with label Global health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Global health. Show all posts

Dr. Feel Goods Nathans & Ndulor

  • Posted by Kristin
  • Tuesday, January 6, 2009


It is my fervent belief that healthcare should be a universal human right and not the privilege of a few. Healthcare in Africa has slowly transitioned from traditional medicine to modern technology with university trained medical doctors. However, healthcare is still rudimentary in rural areas. Dr. Ibe Nathans (a medial doctor)and Dr. Lawrence Ndular, (a clinical psychologist)are two UK educated Nigerians, who make the extra effort to return to their homeland to offer their aid to in need Nigerians.Ndulor was robbed and shot in the chest which, has curtailed his trips to Nigeria but not his financial support for the Ibelaw Community Health & Social Care Foundation. Huge thanks, to people like Nathans and Ndulor who work towards helping those with the biggest need.

 

Uganda’s HIV/AIDS Success Story Threatened by U.S. Interference

  • Posted by Kristin
  • Monday, January 5, 2009



Uganda has its share of problems yet, Uganda is still THE model for the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. However, Uganda’s model and success is currently being threatened. 940,000 people are living with HIV and 1.2 million children are orphaned by AIDS.

First and foremost with any successful health initiative you must gain confidence, trust, and speak to the direct needs of the target population. HIV/AIDS hit Uganda hard in the mid-80s around the same time President Museveni came to power. In President Museveni you had a president that cared that his country men were dying. He knew that a simple message of caution could (and would) save millions of lives. Museveni relaxed the control on media outlets allowing a frank message regarding the transmission of HIV/AIDS to spread through “churches, school, and villages.”

The forthright discussion and ABC programs (abstain, be faithful, use condoms) a comprehensive sex awareness program aided in removing the stigma and fear associated with the virus. Now the success that was once Uganda’s in the fight against HIV/AIDS is now in danger. Uganda’s HIV/AIDS programs are funded by numerous organizations. President Bush’s financial assistance is tied inextricably to "abstinence only" programs. A program which presses Uganda to teach abstinence versus the comprehensive sex awareness that reduced the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the 90s.

Abstinence “only” programs are ineffective and grossly unfeasible. The use of such stipulations tied to government funds in my opinion are a gross breach of the term separation of church and state. President Bush gave Uganda $8 million for the use of abstinence only programs. These programs do not and cannot effectively work alone. While, the concept and ideology is admirable we live in world filled with secular images and secular behaviours.

 

World AIDS Day

  • Posted by Kristin
  • Monday, December 1, 2008

JPS Health Network recognizes World AIDS Day

BY ELIZABETH BASSETT
December 01, 2008


JPS Health Network will be hosting a memorial service on Dec. 1 to recognize World AIDS Day.

The hour-long service, which will start at 10:30 a.m., will be in the third-floor auditoriums of the John Peter Smith Hospital. Those who have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS will be remembered, and a list of names of those who died this year will be read. It’s estimated that about 100,000 within Tarrant County have HIV, which causes AIDS, and up to one-third of the infected may not know they have the disease. For more information on the event, contact Nicci Willey at 817-927-1025.



The following are events in Dallas in Observance of World AIDS Day
DALLAS


The North Texas HIV Service Providers Council will host its 2008 World AIDS Day event Friday, Dec. 5 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel, 2201 Stemmons Fwy. An information fair and AIDS Memorial Quilt viewing will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A luncheon will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Jeanne White-Ginder, mother of Ryan White, will be the keynote speaker. Reservations are required. Call 214-521-5191 to make a reservation.

The DFW Stomp Out Syphilis Campaign is hosting a World AIDS Day balloon launch and educational presentation at noon on Monday, Dec. 1 at the MLK Family Clinic at 2922-B MLK Blvd. Keynote speakers for the event are Barbara S. Cambridge, Ph.D., professor at UT-Southwestern Medical School, and Fernie Sanchez, M.A., of AIDS Arms, Inc. For more information, contact Diedre Spears, or call her at 214-528-0144.

AIDS Interfaith Network/Manos Unidas , in conjunction with Dallas County Health and Human Services, will provide HIV testing at the Mexican Consulate, 8855 N. Stemmons Fwy., on Monday, Dec. 1 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, contact Edgar Carmona at 214-943-4444.

For additional post regarding HIV/AIDS you can read here and here.

 

Human Trafficking

  • Posted by Kristin
  • Friday, June 27, 2008



I was unable to sleep last night which is unusual for me. I am the type of person that generally never has a problem going to sleep. Anyway I found myself still awake at 11pm so I began channel surfacing in order to induce a state of severe boredom that would enable me to catch some zzzzz. I landed on MSNBC which was showing an expose on Sex Slaves in America. I have to say I was shocked I don’t know why I knew this kind of thing existed especially living in Texas and being raised a couple of hours ride from the border.

I found myself watching the whole hour show and tearing up over the desperation and hopelessness these women found themselves in. The expose focused mainly on Houston and San Francisco many of these women were kept under constant surveillance and threatened, beat and raped repeatedly. This is a modern day slavery and bondage that affects women and children disproportionately due to a number of reasons.

(The video below is not the same one that I viewed the previous night but it represents the horrors and desperation that cloak human trafficking.)



Violence is perpetrated overwhelmingly against women many of which have been marginalized in society in large numbers, especially women in developing countries. For example, in South African they boast the highest incidence of femicide, where a woman dies every 12 hours, this is 6 times higher than in the United States or Canada (Wasserman, 2006). The effects of a patriarchal society where sentiments of male superiority and women inferiority operates as a prime catalyst for the continued acceptance of violence against women.

The act of violence is a major public health concern and a threat to social and economic development worldwide (Ellsberg, 2006). Violence, intimidation and superiority complexes have laid the ground work for the global atrocity named human trafficking.

"Traffickers often target children and young women. They routinely trick victims with promises of employment, educational opportunities, marriage, and a better life. (U.S. Department of State. 2004. Trafficking in Persons Report. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State.)"

If you would like to become involved or learn more about human trafficking please log onto these websites:


www.notforsalecampaign.org

www.polarisproject.org

www.cargoinnocencelost.com

www.stophumantrafficking.com


or call Human Trafficking Referral hotline from The Department of Health and Human Services: 1-888-373-7888

If anyone would like the full citation to the above articles contact me and I will provide them for you.

 

Measles, Switzerland and Illinois

  • Posted by Kristin
  • Tuesday, June 3, 2008




I have been posting for a little over a month and I don’t think I have posted anything regarding my field of occupation. There are two main reasons for this one whenever I do talk to my husband about my job his eyes tend to glaze over and I get the occasional grunt that signifies he is following me (no matter, I feel the same way about his job I think it has something to do with finance, shows how much I pay attention). Anyway the other reason simply is I have become bored it’s nowhere as exciting as it was five years ago partly because when we do find something interesting the state gets to take all the friggin credit for it. I have you all know that salmonella outbreak a year ago we found evidence of it months before the state even announced its findings but were we mentioned noooooooo. Whatever.

So as I was browsing through my promed mail I found this case regarding measles nothing new and inteseting to most of us; the majority of us have been afflicted with or vaccinated aganist measles at some point in our lives. However, what I found interesting was the way these new 8 cases evolved. The initial case (or point of reference) was from a man visiting from Switzerland.

This is just another example of how global the world is becoming and how diseases like SARS and bird flu are no longer bound by trivial obstacles such as oceans. Global health is an increasing interest of mine which is why this case struck me as interesting; I think I will begin to make a concerted effort to contribute more post on global health issues and how they affect America.

 

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